Climbing out the window, I took care to make sure my movements made no sound. I quickly checked that everything was tied tight to my body. Any bags, and anything I had stolen, were tucked snug underneath my clothes. Noise would get you killed here.

  Lowering myself down from the window, I settled lightly on the roof. Pausing, I made sure I had everything with me. And I was about to take off running, when someone ran into me.

  I couldn’t see who had hit me, as the sun hadn’t risen yet. Grasping onto the edge of the roof as I skidded over the shingles, panic coursed through me at all the noise. After my painful slide across the shingles, my hands and arms were sore, but I pulled myself up.

  Looking around, I spotted a figure laying on the ground, sprawled out unnaturally. Unconscious, I thought, or at least pretending to be.

  Then I heard faint footsteps coming from the house I had just left. Quickly, I ducked beside the wall next to the window and just hoped no one looked out too far.

  I held my breath as someone reached out to close the window, but thankfully the two of us—me and the figure, still lying splayed out across the roof, went unnoticed. I had thought about just running off and leaving whoever it was, but I’ll admit they intrigued me a bit. You don’t see many people when you only come out at night.

  I searched him after making sure he really was unconscious. And there was a thrill in all of this, despite the new scrapes on my hands. I loved being a thief, every part of it. It was thrilling and taxing, both mentally and physically. It requires key concentration and it is almost always your life hanging in the balance if you mess up. And while this may seem exhausting—and it is—it is also the only life I’ve known, and I thrive on it.

  The person had quite a few knives on him, a coin purse, and a few items that seemed stolen. It wasn’t commonplace to carry gold-plated cutlery, and I could tell by the weight of them, they weren’t from this neighborhood. No one around here had the money for gold-plated, well, anything really.

  In the dim light given off by the lit torches below us, I could make out a mark on his armband. It meant he was part of a guild, and this one was well known for its work. And by work, meant it was mostly dealing with assassinations. The symbol looked almost like a ‘z’ with extra lines, but it was meant as a T and an E.

  It stood for Terra Edem, a woman who had been the founder of the guild and also the leader for as long as I had been stealing. Everyone knew of her and feared the guild. Businesses paid taxes to them, many stories circulated of people who had crossed her, and the charred remains of their house. I hesitated, not quite knowing what to do. Part of me knew I had to leave, and that the sun would be up soon. Not to mention I was literally standing outside the place I had stolen from.

  “C’mon, Izzie, be smart. Leave now.” I whispered almost inaudibly to myself. But some part of me fought against every instinct I had learned. And so I hit him, just hard enough to get him conscious again. And only after double-checking he had no more concealed weapons on him first, of course. He bolted upright and got to his feet, and in that small moment, I had a knife pressed against his throat.

  “What are you doing here?” I spoke low, making sure my voice wasn’t recognizable. I already knew the dark clothes hid my identity in the low light. He was dressed similar to me, with a hood and veil covering his head and most of his face. I felt him swallow gingerly against my blade.

  “What do you think I am doing,” He paused, swallowing again, and I was surprised to hear the calmness in his voice. “Dressed in black, running on rooftops?” I couldn’t even detect any fear in his voice, which meant — I was missing something. I pressed the knife harder against his throat until I knew it was cutting through the cloth, and that it would most likely draw blood. My other hand grabbed and quickly twisted his wrist, hard, until his knees hit the roof.

  “Don’t think about escaping.” I whispered harshly. I moved my hand slightly to keep the knife in place and still gripped his wrist firmly.

  “Well,” He spoke quietly and slowly now, probably trying to keep my knife from cutting him further. “We should both think about escaping soon before that sun comes up. Also, I saw you climb out of that window. So if I had to guess, you just stole from the place we are directly in front of. This is the worker’s part of town, many get up before the sun. Not a smart thief are you?” He barely finished the sentence before he inhaled sharply as I applied more pressure to his neck.

  He had guessed what I was, and he was right. Though it wouldn’t have been too hard to figure out, given where he had run into me. Regardless, I had to get far away from here, and soon. I was about to remove the knife and take off, but he stopped me.

  “Wait,” he muttered. “I’m guessing you searched me, which means you probably took it. And you can keep everything else you lifted off of me, but-” His voice got tight. “There’s a ring you took from the inside right pocket of my vest. It’s cheap metal, not silver and I promise it’s worth nothing to fence. But it’s important to me.”

  I knew immediately which piece he meant. It was a plain ring, with no engravings that I could feel through my gloves. But I was running out of time, and there was no way I was trusting him. And yet, I paused. It had been so long since I had even talked to someone else, outside of bargaining for food and other supplies in the market. My curiosity was getting the best of me.

  “Tell me why it’s important and make it quick or we’ll both be dead soon.” I was wasting time, and it was time neither of us could afford. I knew better and every part of my body wanted to move; my brain was already mapping out the fastest route to get back to my place, but I still let him speak.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I can’t explain in the time we have, but since you’ve taken my things and we’ve both been delayed, I have a job that must be done tonight and it would admittedly be easier with two people. If you join me and give me back one of my knives so I can kill this man, I’ll tell you. Along with some interesting information about the house you just lifted from.” When he noticed I hesitated, he added, “We really don’t have time for this, and you’ll want my info.”

  I didn’t really see any reason not to go with him, and it ensured that he didn’t follow me back if I just left him now.

  “Fine, but you don’t get the blade until we get to the job.” He shrugged and held up both his hands in an innocent gesture. I released him and his hands went immediately to where the knife had been. It was bleeding, but not too bad. The dim shadow in front of me stood up and started off toward the North East, one of the richer parts of town.

  I followed behind him, keeping pace but watching him the whole time. We were only running for about ten minutes by the time I had guessed the general place of mark. He had led us through all the normal routes that every thief knows, and I figured it was done deliberately. Every thief, or in his case—assassin—had their own highways, and we don’t divulge that kind of information without need.

  I figured his target was probably one of the butlers from the rich houses. It was typical for a richer man or woman to get rid of the “lower class” staff by hiring Terra Edem’s kind. Usually someone has found out that a servant pilfering money, or had slept with a housemaid, or some other minor felony. And instead of wasting money on firing the poor soul and perhaps having them take revenge later on, they hired people from Terra Edem’s group to get rid of him, permanently.

  However, I was surprised to find that my first assumption had been wrong. We weren’t heading for a smaller bunk house, or the kitchens attached the main house - it wasn’t a butler he was after at all. It looked like a direct family member of one of the estates.

  As he scoped out a way onto the roof, I inspected him. Not knowing his name yet, and there still not being much light, I noticed he was quite muscular and obviously got enough food. Unlike most of us who are lucky if we can manage to get a few pieces of bread a day, guilds tend to get compensated better.

  We clambered up higher onto someone’s balcony nearby, and he made a large leap and rolled when he landed on the manor’s roof. Taking it at a bit of a run, I hurled myself over the balcony and barely made it onto the roof, but still fell into a roll silently. There was a barely audible chuckle from ahead of me. Was he laughing at me? Shaking my head, I followed him, still eager to find out who his target was.

  We stopped with a balcony beneath us, and he motioned for me to wait. He silently climbed down, dropped onto the balcony, then crouched to unlock the door. His stealth was impressive. In almost no time, he had the door unlocked and climbed back up to me. Leaning over the railing to the left of the door where I crouched, he put his lips next to my ear.

  “Knife now, and you can keep watch.” He whispered, his breath warm in my ear. I have no idea why I gave it to him. He could have killed me instantly without even giving me time to flinch. But I was already in this far.

  I handed him three of the throwing knives I had taken from him, but he only grabbed one. I raised an eyebrow at that, though he couldn’t see it. Even skilled thieves have a few knives just in case they have to take someone else out at a close range, or something messes up a throw. And I knew he didn’t have any other weapons on him. Not sure if I should be impressed, or if it just proved he was an idiot, I kept close to the side of the roof above the balcony and waited.

  He vanished back into the room and I heard nothing, which wasn’t surprising for someone who was skilled. Reappearing again, I watched as his shadow closed the doors behind him and vaulting effortlessly over the railing, and without a word, he kept running. It took me a moment to realize he had motioned for me to follow him.

  Only leaving me a moment for a decision, I followed, and we carried on for another few minutes as the sun was peeking over the hills in the distance, still dark enough I could make it back with time to spare. I saw and then heard him stumble. Then I watched as he collapsed and leaned roughly against a wall we were passing. Sinking to the ground with his back against it as I came up to him. His hand was against his side and as he moved it away, I could just glimpse the flash of metal. A knife. In his side. He smiled at me and coughed.

  “Maybe I should have taken the second knife.” Crouching down, I pressed a hand against his shoulder to stop him from moving. It must have been from the house, I realized, although he had moved so gracefully after... But that didn’t matter now. There was blood on his uniform, and he was stupid enough to run while injured, so who knew what he had done to make it worse. I told him to move his arm and looked at it. It had hit his side just under his ribs, missed his lungs or else he wouldn’t be breathing this steadily.

  It hadn’t seemed to hit anything too important, and at least not that deep from what I could see. Moving my jacket, I took a small bag I kept hidden and took out a needle and some thread and some extra cloths. And without even warning him, I took out the knife. His back arched, but he made no sound other than a sharp inhale. His face grimaced as I applied pressure to the wound.

  This was not good. His wound would be fine, but the sun was coming up quickly.

  We only had mere minutes before the morning guards came into this area, and there was no place for us to hide. Neither of us had any alcohol on us, and I could see the sweat start on his forehead as I stitched him up. Eight stitches later and I was helping him to his feet, stashing the blood-soaked rags next to the window.

  “Are you alright to make it back?” I asked. He nodded.

  “Follow me.” He said and then took off running again. I looked to the right, towards the tower in the distance, where I was currently staying. There was more light now then when I had stopped to look at his injury.

  I hoped wherever he was going, it was closer than my place. I swore under my breath, sure I was going to regret this.

  Catching up to him was easy. His pace was slower than before, which wasn’t all that surprising after what had happened. I wondered if he was going back to his hideout. Within a few minutes, just as the sun came up fully, he stopped and spoke quietly next to me.

  “If you kill me, you’ll regret it. You know what I’m a part of, and they will have you slain on the same day.” And with that, he jumped off the roof without warning. I approached the edge and saw a hole that went down into a part of an old church, and I was surprised I hadn’t come across it before. Though, given that the church was in the merchant part of town, there wasn’t any reason to come here.

  I watched as he hit a white sheet at the bottom, and was approached by what I assumed were guards. Hoping that they wouldn’t kill me on sight, I jumped after him, not giving myself a chance to back out.

  I hit the sheet and felt arms grab me roughly. Looking around the room, it was dark at first, and it took my eyes a few moments to adjust. Wooden paneling lined the walls, and I saw the same figure just beside me on my left. He motions to the guards once I’m taken—pulled, really—off of the sheet and are standing back on solid ground, and they release me.

  “Welcome.” His voice echoes in the room.